Going for a Dutch auction made Google's 2004 IPO more complex and Playboy almost killed it. Writing for the Harvard Business Review, Google CEO Eric Schmidt provides a case study in going public in a 'Googley' way and making oodles of money despite - or because of - negative press. His thesis: Google (NSDQ: GOOG) survived with its own values intact by avoiding the traditional IPO route. A few bits from the article (but not a substitute for reading it all):

•More attention, more money: Schmidt credits the intense attention on how bad an IPO would be for Google with increasing public awareness, which in turn increased traffic and revenue. He tosses in doom-and-gloom quote after quote from media and analysts about Google's decisions and his chances. During the quiet period "people came out in droves to criticize our business, our management, our culture, our IPO - almost every aspect of who we were. And because we had to remain silent, we weren't able to defend ourselves, correct misinformation, or try to reassure the public." They stopped reading the press, he says, but kept the clippings.

•"Idiots with lava lamps": Until Google finally published its financials, "many people thought of us as a bunch of idiots with lava lamps." The company was expected to file at 2pm. April 29; being Googley, they pulled "a fast one" and actually filed at 11am.

• The Playboy (NYSE: PLA) interview: The August issue of Playboy came out during the IPO quiet period with a "very generic interview of founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin that almost derailed the whole IPO. ... All hell broke loose, and the SEC considered forcing us to postpone the entire process." The solution: add the interview as an appendix to the SEC filing for full disclosure. That wasn't the first Brin-Page potential glitch. Schmidt says the SEC wanted their letter about values at the front of the prospectus to be removed because it might confuse potential investors. "We held our ground."

GOOG started trading on Nasdaq Aug. 19, 2004 at $85. The opening trade took it to $100. It closed this Tuesday at $529.06 with a market cap of more than $168bn. As of an SEC filing at the end of March, Schmidt owned 12.7% of the company's Class B common stock.